In magnetic recording, a recording head is positioned adjacent to a data storage medium, and a write pole in the head produces a magnetic field that affects the direction of magnetization of magnetic domains in the storage medium. To increase the areal density of data stored in magnetic data storage devices, it is desirable to increase the write field produced by the recording heads. The pole piece material and the distance between the recording head and the medium determine the magnitude of the write field seen by the medium. Flying the head closer to the medium seems like an obvious choice to increase the write field, however, it remains an extreme engineering challenge. Therefore, the only other choice at hand, to increase the write field, is to change the pole tip material to a ferromagnetic material that possesses a large magnetic moment (4πM). Currently, the largest magnetic moment at room temperature is 2.45 T found in FexCo1-x alloys, where x=0.5 to 0.6. These FeCo alloys were discovered over 50 years ago and still remain the highest moment material known.
To increase the write field, it would be desirable to increase the magnetic moment of the write pole material. There is a need for a recording head that can produce a write field that is larger than the write fields produced by previous head designs.